“Mosquitos on the river, the fish are rising up like birds”
-Robert Hunter

Thank God the nymph fishing season is finally over. Copi and I loaded up on Mexican cokes and floated Hooks down and tied on big orange dries, because, frankly, we’ve had it with watching bobbers. Copi is inclined towards throwing singles, but I convinced him to double down and the fish were chowing anything as long as it was tight to the bank and twitching. The young gun, in his unbridled enthusiasm, snapped my beloved Scott G2 in half on a big brown half way through the float. I’m down to a couple of rods at this point, and right in time for the official start of the drift season on the Fork. I liked my four-weight Scotty so much when I bought it last year that I got two of them sumbitchs, so at least I have a backup. I’m a big fan of Scott rods and fuzzy dice to hang from your mirror. Plus they make them in Colorado. There’s no such thing as “too much” gear as long as it’s the right shit. I would rather have a junker car and good fishing gear. I have bags to keep my bags in. We had the whole damn river to ourselves, which is the way I like it. The water is still up but at the perfect level for dries, and the fish are laying on the soft side over grass and riffle bars, and the big early summer caddis are popping. The channels running through the grass are like mini spring creeks, and you can see the fish slide out of the grass to nuzzle your bug. No idea what kind of caddis these are, except that they’re big and orange which is enough information. The Drakes come off shortly after the big caddis, so mid-June should be torrid. Then it’s just a question of mojo and repeating over and over in your head, or out loud if you like, “Come on, eat, eat, eat it…” If you expectafish it happens, if you dont it doesn’t. My dentist, Doc Covello, who got the BASS bug several years ago, was good enough to fill a giant whole in one of my teeth. He’s been using his dental tools to make BASS jigs, and we were talking about coming up with some kind of a buzz-bait you could huck with a fly rod. There’s a ton of clever stuff the BASS boys do that would be a hell of a lot of fun to try on trout. Santini, Copi, and I are going to do a poach float on some damn tailwater on Friday to catch pellet feeders, but after that, I’ll be back in Bonedale where the trout are finally on top. I like all kinds of fishing, but there’s nothing better in my book than big dry flies out of a moving boat on a freestone.

Live from the World Headquarters
Kea C. Hause esq.